ReNo

I think you mean those graffiti textures - looks like about 4 overlays stacked on top of one another to me! Very nice map and its good to see a cool theme like this being done. Terrain looks nice and the dam - though fairly simple in construction - looks pretty majestic and believable. Can't wait to see how what you do with the interiors.

Looks cool to play and I like the theme, but to me it just doesn't look like source. Most likely because you have been liberal with your use of props and displacement surfaces On a more serious note though, adding in more colour and contasting lighting will make a huge difference, as would a bit of an increased detail level. Got potential though, looking forward to playing it

Your point about clever placement is a good one - there is little skill involved in using physics props if you are in a tight environment. However, I reckon in my tunnel area there is plenty of room for dodging, and not only that but there is a wealth of cover in there too, making it far from skill-less in this scenario. The amount of props could mean surrounding tighter areas (such as the vent corridor screenshot) become too easily defendable I guess, but provided rooms have multiple entry points it shouldn't be the uber-horrible dead end affair of dm_overwatch's roof. To be honest, until I get some proper testing done on the thing, I think our disagreements over any of these matters are just wasted breath. If testing shows it to be too physics heavy, I'll lighten the load.

Half-Life multiplayer wasn't filled with moving platforms - about the only ones I can think of are the lifts seen in a few maps and the train in subtransit. I wouldn't say I plan on colour coding ("oooh green means its a magnum over here!") but I will try and make weapon spawn points obvious to the players by tactful use of lighting and effects. Ferret, think about what Valve is promoting HL2DM as - deathmatch with physics combat. Not only does the slash screen show it, but their maps encourage it and their press release blatantly gloats about it. Is it the perfect deathmatch game? Far from it. But its what Valve are putting this out as, and I think for maps to be in with a chance of winning then physics props will need to play a large part of it. I can't imagine that maps with little to no use of physics props will place favourably to be honest - its going against what Valve has made HL2DM into. I'm not claiming to have struck a good balance myself - only testing will identify that - but I don't think the more spartan levels will be chosen. That said, I am prepared to eat my words if proven wrong

Its just a basic layout, definately nothing to look at, so I'm not too sure there is much point to be honest.

I just watched the trailer and...it was crap. It shows nothing until that explosion at the end, and the special effects there looked like something out of the TV show "the outer limits" :x I wish they would stop all this remaking of old films, just make new ones godammit!

See, isn't Scotland lovely! You picked some nice areas to visit - Edinburgh is a great city and I've always been fond of Stirling. I've never really visited any of the isolated areas to the north, should probably get around to it sometime.

Your layout looks to have far too many dead ends to make for good playability. Even though an office may well only have one entry point into a room, in a deathmatch map you really ought to have at least two or three. Look at Epic's levels in UT, very few of them feature dead ends, and those that do incorporate them into the flow so that going to them is a risk/reward strategy. Others have already mentioned the need for z-axis integration of areas, but I'll just repeat their concern for additional effect Very unique looking map though, thumbs up for originality!

Not a bad layout, played quite nicely with the group of us that were on. In its current early state I found it hard to know where I was at times due to lack of visual landmarks, but obviously that will be remedied as the map is detailed. Trap needs lowering in power, remove the somewhat redundant health charger from that room as well, and 3 ammo packs for the magum in there is probably a little bit too much. The super charger and a couple of magnum ammo will still provide a decent enough pull to take the risk I've a feeling this might be a reasonably tricky map to detail for the reason that it doesn't feel much like rooms. The majority of the level is interlinking corridors, widening when they meet, and it might be hard to make areas of particular visual interest. Will be interesting to see where you go with it though, good luck.

Love that last line Ferret, so true

Hey there mate Use "dev_overview 2" to get an overview of your map. You already know my opinions and concerns so I won't bother repeating them here.

I understand most of your' concerns about the overuse of props in levels, but I think its as much due to the stigma associated with anything "prefabricated" that most amateur level designers seem to have than for any aesthetic or gameplay reasons. I too felt the same - I used to hate the idea of using premade props in a level and not crafting everything myself - but it does mean you have high quality resources available to you in order to quickly detail your map. Its not making level design skill-less by any means, so those of you who are against them for fear of no longer being the "elite" shouldn't worry. Anyway, back to the map, take this screenshot... To me this looks quite nicely balanced. Its far from perfect - the textures look over stretched, the overly-contrasting ground surfaces clash, the grassy displacement surfaces are far too rough and uneven for grass, the lighting is pretty dull, and if you don't change those lightglows on the lampposts I'll be forced to kill you. That said, the scene is reasonably nice - the building is clean and simple but very well shaped and looks convincing, and the prop use is reasonably believable (while believe it or not crates aren't always unreasonable, they do perhaps look a bit wrong in this scenario!). I suggest you try making more confined areas to be honest, as unless you are very careful such big open areas kinda suck for gameplay and are hard to make visually interesting and varied. Good luck with it though.

Thanks for the comments guys The pickup truck and truck cab are both statics and stuck in the rubble that blocks off both ends of this tunnel, while the other two cars are physics enabled. I understand your concern about the overpopulation with props, so I'll see what I can do to limit them a little more without making the map feel empty. I've not really played much in the way of HL2DM yet so I've probably gone overboard thinking this much is needed when it really isn't - I guess testing will tell! I also think I've been "encouraged" to populate the map by the official maps' crazy physics prop useage, but maybe I'm making a bad move looking at those for gameplay tips :roll: I've tried to keep all the props out of crucial movement areas by default so I think you could navigate it fine backwards by default. Its whether the prop layout stays that way for long that is a big issue. I do see your concern Fletch but I'm not sure HL2DM merits the comparisons to Q3A and UT, which both have static layouts and fast movement. Knowing how to get around the map without having to look and see is crucial in those games, but in HL2DM you never know if you are going to trip on a physics item somebody has placed, and the only way you can, as a mapper, avoid this is by removing them all. HL2DM maps have a dynamic layout - sure it starts the game but won't stay that way for long - and I'm taking the position that if you don't encourage the use of physics, then you aren't gonna win the comp. I've also tried to ensure that the map has plenty of cover to ensure physics items aren't the dominant weapon of choice - take the concrete blocks seperating the two roads for example, which should provide nice cover from the flying cars Those of you who mentioned z-axis is really limited in this area are right on the ball, and I'm afraid I only have one planned z-axis addition to the tunnel area. With other areas I'll have to try and push it more in order to stop the gameplay being vertically challenged. Underneath the tunnel is going to be a sewer area and I've some fairly cool ideas for interesing z-axis links between this floor and that, so its not all doom and gloom in terms of gameplay potential The blurry wall textures don't come across as too blurry while playing I don't think, but others have voiced their concern over this in the past as well. Its not my settings, its due to the fact I've used a 0.5 scale on the main walls as opposed to the default 128. The texture I've used in there just doesn't come out right at a 0.25 scale in my opinion, and works better scaled up a little in order to coat the whole wall. If during beta testing people find the map to look blurry, I'll definately look into alternatives. Thanks again for all the comments guys, you've definately proven that this site is a great one for map feedback I see

First off, hello to everyone here (especially the familiar faces). I've been meaning to sign up here for a while now and never got around to it, but as I've currently been spending much too much time on forums I needed another to spread it all out a little As crackerjack and ferret seem to have abandoned the Snarkpit in favour of here I had to follow just to see them again :sniff: In addition, some of you guys have some awesome levels, and a little critical feedback from the pros never goes amiss Good to see you keep up with industry openings here too, but well I'll stop blabbering as I've clearly justified my reasons for joining up already! This is my WIP map for Valve's DM contest - dm_echo. Its based loosely on my HLDM map of the same name, though little other than the setting is constant between the two. You'll also possibly notice the similarity between the tunnel area and the first level of "Sand Traps" in HL2 (zombie infested, car packed tunnel), since I'm trying to keep the map quite coherent to the HL2 world. Any and all feedback is welcome - be as harsh as possible please and shout out even little niggles with passion enough to make me think its worth the effort to change